A container-type data center has necessary facilities for constituting a data center stored in a container-type box used as a cargo transportation means using a trailer or the like, as taught in Non-Patent Literature 1. Actually, a container-type data center can store servers, storage apparatuses, control devices, air-conditioning facilities and power supply facilities, so that the container itself can be operated as a data center. It is possible to recognize the container-type data center as a new form of data center capable of being installed outdoors or being transported.
It has been recognized in Japan that the use of such container-type data centers are difficult due to the restrictions by the Building Standards Act, but on Mar. 25, 2011, a notice has been issued from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on “Handling of the Building Standards Act regarding Container-type Data Center”. According to the notice, “Regarding container-type data centers that can be disposed independently on land, those having only a main body of a server device and facilities required for realizing the functions of the data server installed therein, having minimum internal space required for realizing the functions of the data server such as the airway for air conditioning, and which are unattended during operation so that a person only enters the container when a serious failure occurs to the devices installed therein are classified as a storehouse or other similar facilities defined in Article 2 item 3 of the Law. However, when multiple data centers are stacked, they are handled as a facility corresponding to a building architecture, instead of a storehouse or other similar facilities.”
As for containers, the size of the external shape of the container is prescribed based on ISO Standards, and in many cases, 40-feet-type containers are assigned as the container-type data centers. In the prior-art container-type data center, outdoor units of the air conditioning facility were disposed outside the container, so that it was necessary to arrange the container-type data center at a determined location, install outdoor units for air conditioning near the container, and then connect the air conditioning piping with indoor units of the data center.
Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-98799) is aimed at providing a unit type data center in an efficient form and a server room unit effectively and properly used as a structural element of the unit type data center. A server room unit includes multiple server racks and a cooling facility in a casing that can be installed adjacently to another casing, and functions by itself as a server room. In the casing, a cold area and a hot area are formed as sections, and the server racks are aligned at a boundary between the cold area and the hot area so that air can pass through the server racks. The cooling facility includes exhaust fans for supplying outside air to the cold area and discharging the air from the hot area to the outside, and air conditioners for conditioning cool air and circulating the cool air in the casing.
Patent Literature 2 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-252639) aims at providing a building for accommodating electronic devices therein, which efficiently radiates inside heat to the outside while protecting the electronic devices by improving sealing performance, and which can be expanded and moved easily. Metal fasteners capable of being engaged with a tightener are fixed at upper and lower portions of columnar members disposed at four corners of a building, the building having a roof at a position lower than the metal fasteners and an intermediate ceiling board below the roof. Racks accommodating electronic devices are stored in a lower chamber under the intermediate ceiling board, wherein a heat exchanger and an air circulation fan for cooling air are disposed in the lower chamber, and an outdoor heat exchanger for radiating heat is disposed above the lower chamber, so that they sandwich the intermediate ceiling board. When the number of electronic devices increases, the building can be increased by directly disposing one building on another and engaging the metal fasteners with the tighteners. Heat generated by the electronic devices is radiated to the outside air through the heat exchanger in the lower chamber and the outside heat exchanger. The interior of the building is divided into a computer room CR storing computers such as servers and storages in the interior of the room, and a machine room MR having installed therein a power supply unit EU for supplying power to the computers and the like and a spare air conditioning outdoor unit CD and the like.